HOUSEHOLDER: Fish Fry attracts big crowd

The annual Gary Wolford Fish Fry at the Latimore Valley Fairgrounds attracting what appeared to be a record crowd on Sunday.

There was plenty of food for all, and lots of old racing tales.

As always, the big event of the day was the blindfold race. It's an event where one driver is blindfolded and another does the navigating. This year's theme was father-and-son teams.

There were a few changes to the starting lineup for the race, and also there were some changes in the format. The father-son team of Scott and Andy Haus withdrew because Scott hasn't fully recovered from injuries suffered a few weeks ago at Port Royal. Subbing for the Haus combo was the father-son duo of Steve and Jim Siegel. Steve is a former sprint-car champion at several area speedways, and Jim is off to a great start this season, including two third-place finishes this past weekend.

Fred Rahmer was on hand for the event, but his sons, Freddie and Brandon were unable to attend, since they were also booked for media day at Kutztown Speedway, where they will compete in SpeedSTR races this season. Rahmer crew member Al Irisher took over for Freddie as the co-pilot. Hunter Mackison joined his father Johnny Mackison Jr. for a third team, and Billy Pauch and his son Billy Jr. made up the fourth team.

In an effort to keep the teams from causing too much havoc, the field was paced for the entire distance by a pace truck driven by Hall of Fame late-model racer Charlie Weirman. Teams were not allowed to pass the pace truck, and if they hit it, they got a $20 fine for each hit. The race was also stopped at the halfway point to switch drivers. The race was for six laps.

The first three laps had the younger drivers at the wheel, and the last three had the older drivers in command. The pace car kept things tight for the entire distance, and things were predictably a little rough in the early going. At the halfway break, the Mackison car would not refire, and Hunter Mackison moved on to become a backseat driver in the Rahmer machine.

Entering the final turn, things got really wild. Siegel's team spun the pace truck out of the way and they came three wide toward the finish. But the Siegel machine got run up the infield bank, and Rahmer edged Pauch to the line for the win.

By the way, the Siegel team wasn't the only one to hit the pace truck. A total of $80 in fines were collected.

PIT STOPS

WEEKEND SCHEDULE: It will be a big weekend for sprint-car action this weekend.

Williams Grove kicks things off Friday evening with an Outlaw Tune-Up for the sprint cars. With the World of Outlaws coming to the area the following weekend, this show will be run with an Outlaw-style format. The 358 sprints are also part of the program.

Saturday, Lincoln will offer a similar format for the sprint cars. The 358 sprints and thundercars are a also part of Lincoln's show. Both Lincoln and the Grove will offer $4,000 to win this week.

Port Royal hosts the sprint cars, late models and a pro-stock championship on Saturday.

The sprint cars cap off their weekend on Sunday evening when Susquehanna Speedway Park celebrates its 59th anniversary season. The special Sunday show will be the only action at Susky this week and the late models will join the sprint cars on the card.

Elsewhere around the area, on Friday evening, Trailway offers the 358 sprint cars, 270cc micro sprints, limited stocks and street stocks, while Williams Grove's Saturday show features super sportsmen, limited-late models and street stocks. The URC sprints invade Selinsgrove on Saturday for the Jack Gunn Memorial 358/360 Sprint Challenge, which offers $3,500 to win. Late models and pro stocks are also on the slate.

1968: This weekend in 1968 saw most of Saturday's slate washed away, but there was action on Friday and Sunday.

At Williams Grove on Friday, they started with a make-up of the rained-out feature from a week earlier. Bobbie Adamson drove the Wilbur Hawthorn No. 35 to the victory in that event for his fourth overall win of the season. In fact Adamson liked that win so much he came right back and did it again in the regularly scheduled event.

On Saturday, rain washed out action at Lincoln, Selinsgrove and Port Royal. However, down south at Winchester, Va., the racing was completed. Buddy Armel scored one of his two career sprint-car wins. Armel was driving the white No. 28 machine.

Susquehanna was back to its regular Sunday night format this week, and Ray Tilley was back to his winning ways. Tilley drove Bud Grimm's No. 88 Ford to his seventh overall win of the season. Hagerstown was also in action on Sunday, and it was Bobby Allen who parked Charlie Hill's No. 456 in victory lane for his second win of the season.

Bryan Householder writes about dirt-track racing for The York Dispatch. He can be reached at sports@yorkdispatch.com.